We are pleased to inform you that the Ambassador the Republic of Croatia to United States dr Ivan Grdesic will host Croatian Embassy s first Ambassador s Policy Forum tomorrow, Thursday, March 13, 2003.

The topic of tomorrow s Ambassador s Policy Forum is the Sava Initiative. It will seek possibilities to increase the awareness of the significance of Sava Initiative in the US political and business community, to promote its commercial potential and initiate the stronger financial and political support for the Initiative as well.

Panel of Ambassador s Policy Forum to include: Karen E. Volker, Stability Pact coordinator at U.S. Department of State, Ned Cabot, regional director at US Trade and Development Agency,Paula Feeney, director, USAID, Davorin Kracun, Ambassador of Slovenia to US, Fatos Tarifa, Ambassador of Albania to US, representatives of Embassies of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Danemark, Germany, Macedonia, Romania, Sweden, Delegation of the European Comission to US, as well as representatives of World Bank and International Finance Corporation.

Sava Initiative is a regional trans-border water management plan agreed and signed by the governments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovenia the four South East European Countries that share the Sava River Basin. The main goal of this regionally owned initiative is restoring Sava and its navigable tributaries to commercial navigation while ensuring environmental protection and sustainable water management for a total length of more than 600 kilometers of one of the most significant European fairways Southwest of river Danube.

Ambassador s Policy Forum is a Croatian Embassy s initiative that aims to foster debate and inform Washington DC political and business community on important future oriented bilateral, as well as regional policy issues.

For more information, please contact:

Alan Vojvodic, Embassy of the Republic of Croatia to the United States of America